‘Put a truck of chocolate outside his front door’

Matthijs de Ligt does not have to throw any more chocolate in his shopping cart for the time being. Teammate Yann Sommer is particularly grateful to the Bayern Munich defender for his strong display of defense in the Champions League match against Paris Saint-Germain.

De Ligt prevented a certain goal by Vitinha on Wednesday night with a slide just before the goal line, which seemed to put the French at 1-0 after a failed walk with the ball by Sommer in his own penalty area.

“That save was incredible,” Sommer said afterwards. “I’ve said it a few times, but I put a truck of Swiss chocolate at his front door. It’s amazing what he did there. If it had gone wrong there, the match could have had a different course anyway.”

The Swiss Sommer was brought to Bavaria in the winter break as an extra goalkeeper, because figurehead Manuel Neuer is long-term injured.

Bayern Munich won the match 2-0 and eliminated Paris Saint-Germain in the eighth final. In Paris, the Germans had already won the away match 1-0.

Madrid sports newspaper Marca shared a sneer at Kylian Mbappé after Paris Saint-Germain’s exit, who chose a longer stay in the French capital last summer over a transfer to Real Madrid.

PSG fell disappointingly in the eighth finals for the fifth time in seven years despite huge investments.

“If you ever want to win the Champions League, you know what to do,” the newspaper headlined. Real Madrid is defending champion and has won Europe’s biggest club tournament 14 times, a record.